Where most humanoid robots have human-looking features on the outside but not inside, the Eccerobot team takes a different approach, giving their robot a humanoid skeleton, joints, and tendons so that it can better mimic human movement.

The team of European roboticists behind the Eccerobot (Embodied Cognition in a Compliantly Engineered Robot) is looking to create the first "anthropomimetic," a robot whose movements and interaction with its environment mimic those in humans. To that end, Eccerobot's design is meant to ape the human musculoskeletal system, which they hope will result in a robot with the same powers of movement and manipulation as a human being. Rather than utilizing metals and more rigid plastics, Eccerobot's skelton is made from a springy, bone-like, thermoplastic polymer, supplemented with kitline and elastic polymer for the muscles and tendons. The Eccerobot is also equipped with sensors that will allow it to interact with its environment in a more human-like way, enabling it to recognize where objects are and react with the appropriate body movements and pressure to manipulate the object. The robot's cognitive functions are still under development, but you can see its artificial skeleton and muscles in action below: